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Mortuary chapel, designed by Patrick Allan-Fraser and built in the late 19th Century as a funerary memorial to his wife Elizabeth (d.1873), and her parents Major John Fraser (d.1809) and his wife Elizabeth (d.1851), which sits in the centre of the Arbroath Western Cemetery (NO64SW0608). Once completed, Allan-Fraser gifted the chapel to the people of Arbroath, along with a generous endowment to fund its ongoing upkeep, to be used as a non-denominational funeral chapel. Aptly described by J. Gifford (2012) as a 'Victorian neo-medieval architectural fantasy', the chapel sits in the centre of Arbroath's Western Cemetery. Style-wise, it has much in common with the similarly elaborate Hospitalfield House (NO64SW0009), the Fraser's family seat which Allan-Fraser had himself remodelled in the mid 19th Century. Built in local red sandstone ashlar masonry, the chapel is roughly oblong-shaped in plan, with aisle-like loggias along the north and south elevations. At the corners are towers and turrets, each of differing design. The main entrance is on the east elevation, through a segmental-arched doorway with elaborately decorated mouldings, including naturalistic carvings of plants, foliage and shells. This decorative theme of the natural world is repeated across the exterior and interior of the chapel, with foliage twisting round columns, birds and animals peeking out from every corner, and elaborate floral motifs. Much of the stone carving work is by mason James Peters. Crowning a turret high above the main entrance is a high-relief frieze depicting a typical Highland funeral procession. At the west ends of the north and south elevations, on the inner angles of the west corner towers, are corbelled-out, conical roofed stair turrets. Between the west towers is the gently bowed out end of the chancel which contains an elaborately decorated rectangular window. The west towers contain the tombs of Major John Fraser and his wife Elizabeth Parrott and of Patrick Allan-Fraser and his wife Elizabeth Fraser. The south west tower features a sundial while the north tower features a clock. Inside the main entrance, the vestibule has a groin-vaulted ceiling with corbels decorated with birds, animals and foliage, and featuring the herald of the Burgh of Arbroath on the central boss. The main body of the chapel is tall and narrow, with a stone bier at the west end of the nave and short chancel behind. At the east end of the nave is a triforium gallery with a double row of columns. The columns support a straight lintel under a blind segmental arch-head peppered with rosettes and the inscription 'DUST THOU ART AND UNTO DUST SHALT THOU RETURN'. Along the upper levels of the north and south sides are galleries featuring columns ornately decorated with naturalistic motifs. The chapel is no longer in ecclesiastical use.
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Historic Environment Records (HER) 
Angus
HER -
NO64SW0282 - MORTUARY CHAPEL, WESTERN CEMETERY, ARBROATH